On Christmas Eve, Williams & Connolly filed this 161-page cert. petition on behalf of Textron, asking the Supreme Court to review the First Circuit's 3-2 en banc decision (United States v. Textron, No. 07-2631 (1st Cir. Aug. 13, 2009)) holding that Textron's tax accrual work papers were not protected under the work product doctrine and thus had to be turned over to the IRS in its tax shelter investigation. Here is how the cert. petition frames the question presented:

Whether the work-product privilege in federal rule if Civil Procedure 26(b)(3), which protects documents that are “prepared in anticipation of litigation or for trial,” is limited to documents that are prepared for use in litigation.